CSP

I Just wanted you all to know the Tourettes video, "In Front Of The Class" is selling so fast we have had to make special orders. I have asked why the customer wanted the movie, and most times it is a teacher. I just thought you all would like to know this. I think this is wonderful news. CP PS I sent the video and the James Patterson's book "Against Medical Advice" to the school lib. and my daughter said the school was very happy to get these.

Myrose, When I weaned my son off the risperdal I had to really stop and remember how he still ticced even on the meds. I would panic every time I saw a tic. Just try real hard not to think about it or you may see things that look like tics and really are not. Good luck. CP

welcome, Yes, my son had that tic at 8yo and lasted until he was 12yo. He does not do that anymore, and he is out side a lot, playing baseball. He is 15 and a half now. He got glasses when he was 12 so I'm not sure if that is what caused him to stop or if it just change into diff. tics. Good luck I hope you get lots of info here. CP

Welcome jennmomofthree, My son has had the accomodations for about a month now and I really believe it is a great help. We also had trouble getting one for 2 years because he was getting good grades. This past fall he had a really wonderful team of teachers who did not give up and pushed hard to get him accom. My son has very bad vocals and I knew he was having a hard time hearing over his own noises. He also is really good in any math and last year passed the SOL with advanced scores, but this year when he was with a teacher who really was going to fast, he was left behind. He had a C first quarter and an F the second quarter, he has never had anything lower then an A in math. This was the turning point for me and the school finally jumped on board. He was put in another math class with a different teacher and was team taught, he is back to an A third quarter. This is Algerbra and one can not get behind or one will get lost. I get e-mails on work to be done and upcoming tests. I really do believe in high school this is a must for our TS kids. I'm sure this has help him with stress too. Good luck and don't let them tell you he does not need the accom. CP

I stayed a bit longer in Texas, but I wanted to say it was wonderful. If you all can try to go to the next one. It was great meeting Caryn and Q'smom. Thanks for doing the summary, Caryn. We were given stacks of info so give her some time. Also wanted to say my mom came with me and she did not need to use her inhaler once while in Texas. CP

OUCH!!!! Bonnie, Keeping you in my prayers! CP

Hi TMB, I have also heard of the tic and aspergers connection. I did want to let you know I have a friend who has 2 sons and her husband who have aspergers. The boys do show some different sides to aspergers even tho they are in the same family. The oldest boy is very shy and very much has a hard time looking into the eyes of others. He also has what my friend calls meltdowns over what we would think was not a big deal. The younger son has a very hard time making friends he just does not know how to keep them, he may say somethings that his mother would understand as the aspergers, but others would think was rude. He did have a throat clearing tic for a few weeks, but it went away. Before I knew her husband had aspergers I really thought he was rude. For example he would knock at the door and beeline for our video collection and never say hi. He can talk to you on some days and others you think he is mad at you. I use to hate to call her and have him answer the phone because it sounded like he did not want to get her, and I thought he did not want me to be her friend. Now that we all are aware of aspergers I don't even think about it, I just know he is a good guy and sometimes he can only rap his thoughts around one thing at a time. I don't know if this would help, but I thought aspergers children were not much into sports or that kind of phy. activity. I have read that the high dopamine in TSer is what causes them to be more on the athletic side. How is you son in that dept? That may help you to know. Good luck, CP

Thanks for the replies. Patty, He has outdoor allergies and his nose is plugged. He is using the saline salt, but the dr. thinks he should take something because he has a post nasal drip that we keep having checked for strep. He said, son had slight strep???? what ever that means, and sent us out with an antibiotic. I like the idea of having us try the deep breathing and report back, faith. I hope son can get air in and out of his nose to do this the right way. cp

Hi all, son went to Dr. for strep today and the dr. told us it was a proven fact that ts was calmed with a one minute deep breathing to calm nerves. Does anyone do this or heard about that? Other Q... is how do you all feel about Zertec(sp) for allergies? Dr is pushing we use it for son. CP

Thanks Chemar that was great. Tell me, did you say you give your son a protein drink? If so what kind do you buy? Thanks CP

I'm not saying this is a cure for the urinary infection, I just wanted those who just have a problem with normal bed-wetting to try a spoonful of raw honey just befoe bed. Honey attracts water so the idea is, it will hold the fluid during sleep hours, so bed wetting does not take place. CP

Yes, I send my son to school, he needs to learn how to live with ts. I feel my son would use staying home as a crutch if I let him. I really feel letting the teachers see him and hear him in class helped a lot getting the 504 plan for him. I know my son was missing instruction because he could not hear over his own vocals. Good Luck, CP

Faith, Yes, I remember Carolyn and the NAC/ACV, but I think her son really had something wrong and needed the sulfer-containing amino acids. I'm not sure if it had something to do with his glutathione, and needed the NAC to help maintain the levels of glutathione, I really can't remember. I really believe my son has a hard time with all the aminos re: the tics. I felt since his vit. levels were so good and he had been on a clean diet for 2 years it was a great time to see how he would do without the supps. Again hinging my hopes on the VitE/selenium for antioxident support. Even tho he also should have the coQ10 the selenium should help his body produce coQ10. God Bless Faith, CP

Suz., There is some really good info on the Weston A. Price foundation web. You may want to check out the MSG being a neuro toxin. If your son was eating a lot of fast food with the team you may want to think about a slow detox for him. My son when he has a trigger, it's the vocals that always spike. CP

HI and welcome Try-B, Yes, your Dr. should do some tests, but maybe he is leaving this up to the neuro. A couple things my son was tested for first was blood to make sure he did not have Lyme, and also checked for any seizure activity. All other testing we talk about here is atlernitive. A few things you could keep an eye on is his growth rate right now and any puberty activity. Also any teeth coming in? This may help answer why he is showing an increase in ticcing. I think I would be wondering about the allergy med. too. I would resurch all the ingred. and see what you come up with. Just take it slow and don't worry too much about the increase, as I have seen in my own son they always wane. CP

Faith, I don't remember, but does your little buddy have a sulfate metabolic issue? Just wondering why you used the NAC. CP

Hi again, Yes, my son does the same thing when he wants to hide a tic, he yells out some word that sounds like it is just normal talking, but we can tell those are tics too. The diet for us is good because he is afraid to eat out because of a bad peanut allergy. My son did not make the high school baseball team but plays for BabeRuth and loves it, he also pitches and is a great second baseman. I did notice a slight increase in tics when he was trying out for the HS ball team, and went away after he did not make it, so you may see him settle down some. The one thing I have noticed is he take a martial arts class, and has told me he has shown some of the moves to some boys in school, and he believes it helps kids not to tease him. I think he feels they are less likley to do anything. Makes him feel better about himself. Yes, my son also had started with a bad head/neck tic right after the braces went on. Now I think he puts his fingers in his mouth and picks at them, don't know if that is a tic or not. Is he the oldest? My son is the middle child and can act younger then his 12yo sister sometimes. Good luck, and good to talk to you too, and also glad our sons like baseball. Well mine likes hockey and football too, but he does not play those, just keeps up on all the pro teams. CP

Welcome suzsinging, I have a 15yo who exploded with ts at 12yo. he had some very minor to no tics starting at age 8 or 9. My son got braces last June and had months of waxing. He did just have 4 adult teeth pulled and so far no waxing. He has had a good year at school and has the 504 as of a month ago. His teachers all really love him and he is a great ball player. Now with all that said I believe my son suffers with the same issues about dating/driving/college. ect... He is to take the drivers permit test soon and I can tell he is nervous about it, however I have not seen an increase in tics over these thoughts. He has had some really "ditz" moments latley, and got into trouble this weekend, but with his grounding he did not show any increase in tics. (????) In fact yesterday was very very good for him. We have seen it all so far... screaming, cussing, body tics, but all in all he has been a good boy. So what kind of diet has your son been on? Have you seen where he may have had calmer tics at different ages? I mean I feel like my son did well in 8th grade but had a bad summer and beginning of 9th. He started getting better in Nov. My 17yo DD took the SAT this past Sat. too, is your son in 10th or 11th? DD was very nervous, but thought she did fine, she does not have ts though. One last question, is your son a late bloomer? My son seems to be taking forever to get through puberty. CP

Bonnie, His spectraCell tests have him really good on all vit. and the only thing not good was antioxident % so I decided to give it a try and stop all vit. to see how he would do. I only kept the vit.E/sel. because it was part of his antioxident suggestions. CoQ10 had been a tic trigger so I dumped that one, and only stayed with vit.E/sel. So far so good. He does well on the diet because of the really bad allergy to peanuts. He knows not to eat anything someone has given him because he has already had a trip to the hosp. because someone didn't know what they were talking about, and gave him something to eat with peanuts. I think he would cheat if he did not have the allergy. Yep... homemade bread products, yogurt, ice cream made with raw milk, and candy. All other foods are fresh fruit ,veggies, and sandwich meat cut from a chix, turkey, and beef. Homemade sauces for sloppy joe's. CP

Hi Faith, ((((((((BIG HUG)))))))))))) My son has had waxings with NAC, l-carnitine, and taurine. He reacted quickly too. I have to say I have taken every vit. out except vit.E/selenium. He does not wax like he did when I would have him on vit. He has waxing but it is less then before and does not last but a day or two. While on the vit. or an introduction to a new vit. he would wax and it would last weeks. I don't know if he is just more relaxed because I have let up on him or what. I just make sure he eats very well and just about homemade everything. CP

Hi Bonnie, Let's see if I can explain this right. Carbohydrate rich meals stimulate the pancreas to secrete insulin, causing the amion acids that compete with tryptophan to leave the blood stream and enter the muscle cells helping tryptophan to have a free ride to the brain. From what I understand it is all carbs, but people need to understand that carbs can come in healthy foods too, and not loading up on pastries. What I think we have to figure out is how do we keep tyrosine at bay when it is in most foods that also have tryptophan. I think we would want to be smart and send the kids off to school with a more med to high protein to perk up their brains. Lunch maybe a med carb and med protein. Dinner should be high carb low protein because we now want to promote sleep. Let me tell you all what happened this past weekend with the food I gave my son and his baseball game. He had a bouble-header Sat. For cost reasons I have been buying a large turkey at whole foods every 2 weeks and freezing the leftovers for weekend turkey salad sandwiches. So his first game Sat. was at 2:45, and I sent him off to the ballpark with a turkey salad sandwich. He got tired and could not pitch over the plate. Coach look at DH and I and asked if we forgot to give him his VIT. By the next game at 5:30 I made him a ham and cheese sandwich and diced pineapple. Well he was all over that field, making play after play. I don't know if lunch wore off or the ham and pineapple helped, but it was odd. I would love to know how folks on the Atkins Diet battled with depression. What about OCD, would this kind of diet help? CP

Have been wondering about high carb diets and less protein. I would like anyone to chime in, I think a lot of people would benefit from this topic. Tryptophan competes with other amino acids to reach the brain, and a higher carb diet helps clear the amino acids that compete with tryptophan, so tryptophan can reach the brain better to convert into serotonin. Caryn, I remember you saying you all eat more of a carb diet, but I forgot why. I'm still wondering about protein not helping my son's tics. I'm also wondering if this info would help parents with some behavior troubles. If tryptophan/serotonin is the feel good amino acid/neurotransmitter then this diet should help with moods. Also wondering how much tryptophan competes with the amino acids that produce dopamine. Would the higher carb diet help bump the dopamine amino acids from reaching the brain? anyone? CP

Hi Maryann, I would start right now with an increase in vit. C. CP

Welcome cure me, I just wanted to let you know my husband has outgrown his tics. He is 45yo now, and said the tics pretty much went away in his early twenties. He shook his head at 8yo and made noises. How old are you? I'm hoping our son will have the same pattern as husband. Good luck, cp

JUST OUT!!!!! ON YOUR LOCAL NEWS RACK!!! DR. PHIL IS REAL MAD, HE DIDN'T MAKE THE LIST. I BELIEVE I READ HE HAS LOST THE LAST THREE HAIRS ON HIS HEAD OVER THIS NEWS. SHOULD BE SCHEDUALED FOR OPRAH'S COUCH SOMETIME NEXT WEEK.